Shelley Berman

Shelley Berman insisted he was not a stand-up at all: he worked sitting on a stool, miming one side of a telephone call and letting the audience fill in the other. Those anxious, escalating conversations turned everyday embarrassment into the material, a template observational comedy still follows. They also sold: his debut became the first comedy album to go gold and the first non-musical recording to win a Grammy, and spent weeks at number two on the Billboard album chart. Recommended recording: Inside Shelley Berman (Verve, 1959), which streams on Apple Music along with its follow-ups Outside Shelley Berman and The Edge of Shelley Berman.